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Hello, this is The Harboring Light. I'm Mary. I give
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a conservative perspective about the world around me. Feedback is
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immensely important. Feel free to reach out to me. Two
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ways to do this is, of course, through email and YouTube.
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And I appreciate all the listeners out there. You know
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someone that is really interested in my content. Tell them
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about it. Give them the information about everything, if you
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choose to, about The Harboring Light. Thank you so much. Alright,
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so on to the topic of choice. Now, I'm focusing
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in on chapter 8. No, excuse me. Let me say
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that again. Chapter 9 of American Gods. And so I'm
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going to break this up again. The first part in
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this episode and the second part on Wednesday. Here we go. Alright,
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so in the first part what I found very pivotal
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It starts out with saying Grifty, right? And then it
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starts out with Odin, which is Mr. Wednesday, and his conquest, right? Alright, so...
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Odin is talking to Shadow, and it's still Christmas time,
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and they're in a diner. And he's giving these specifics
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about The atmosphere and everything. And I always appreciate that.
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With books. How. Most of them that are well written.
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That is. When they take the time to. Give the
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disposition of. The. The place in which they're in. And.
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Sometimes that's not the case. But most of the time.
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It helps to emphasize. Um. The subject matter. And. A
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lot of the subject matter. Cleverly. Interwolves into. The idea
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of Christmas. So Christmas is supposed to be. The season
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of giving. Of understanding. And. Being. Joyful. And. All of
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the reasons. which should be presented all year round, right?
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But Christmas is particularly the chosen path because, again, Christmas
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was the decided that is the tradition, American tradition or
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so forth, that's decided time in which the birth With
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the birth of Christ. And him. And. His joy and majesty.
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And the reason. For Christmas season. Now some people say.
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And see this is alluding. To the aspects of. Christmas.
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And how. It's one of. There's others. But Christmas is.
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The big holiday occasion where secular and spiritual comes together, right? So,
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hold on just a second. Alright, so. When you look
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at Christmas from a scholarly and a spiritual point of view,
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you're going to find out things conflict with one another.
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And when you look at the circum, if you look at,
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you know, especially when Jesus was born, his birth and everything,
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it's is in the realm of, maybe that's the spring,
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when he was born was in the spring, not necessarily
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in the winter, right? And, well, a scholarly point of
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view about this is tying into Norse, or mythology, right?
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Which Odin is very prevalent of, right? Mr. Wednesday here.
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And so, Norse mythology is one in which, which is pagan,
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one in which they celebrate winter solstice, right? And giving
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respects to the god for, um, surviving a winter and
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getting through in the darkest times of the winter because
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usually typically especially when you think about in the norwegian
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and all of that and the elements it for the
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most part when it's winter most of the time it's
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dark it's the darkest time of the season And so,
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out of that begs the question, you know, where do,
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how do things evolve and establish itself as tradition, right? Now,
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the big picture with American Gods and Neil Graham, he's
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illustrating with His book. You know. America. Is the example.
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Of how. Traditions. Find a way to merge. And become something. Else.
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And specifically. focusing in on Christmas and then going into Easter.
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These are examples of how and with American traditions, right?
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It becomes established to where the ideas about Christ and
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spirituality well let's say the ideas about spirituality form itself
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in holiday traditions which aesthetically and visually makes sense right
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now what does this all mean what I just said
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alright so the birth of Christ right um And Christmas itself. Now,
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the birth of Christ, like I said, was mentioning, you know,
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that there's always the different, which I really appreciate and love,
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and that's how you, you know, if you are of
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Christian faith or what your spirituality is, you get more
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in tune with it when you learn and discover new
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things about your faith, right? Now, the way it's presented,
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it seems like, is if it's in the the spring
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or almost towards the summer season when Jesus is actually born.
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But aesthetically, you know, having it during a time when
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it's the darkest part of the season, particularly in which
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region you live in, in America, right? And this is
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a worldwide thing, not just pertaining to America. And then, again,
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emphasizing on Odin, these are worldly traditions, right? It makes
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sense to want to have the most... noble benedicted act
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of known to mankind to have his birth story is
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to be in the darkest seasons or season of known
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to our natural world right But when you see this
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and understand this and you start to look at... scholarly
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where things turn, it seems as if maybe that's not
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the case. The reason why it was presented to be
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Christmas to become what it is known today, it was chosen.
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It wasn't necessarily the right season. You know, traditionally, well,
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actually it's not the right season. It's just the right
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season because aesthetically it makes sense, right? And so this
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emphasizes the points of the gods in this book. You know,
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driving home the factor of they make sense as far
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as their place when it aesthetically is appealing. Okay? And
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Odin in itself... Sorry about that. Odin in itself is
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one of the prime examples of that, okay? Now, Odin... He...
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Is the foundation for all the other. Others. As far
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as gods and goddesses that came to America. He is
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a foundation to. Say. This is the disposition that I have.
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In which I thrive. And set myself apart from all
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these other gods. That are here in America. And he.
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In his self. You know, shadow is a voice of
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reason and reflection of that again. And shadow in itself
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is trying to hold on and trying to keep into
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his conscious self to say, well, we need to look
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at the moral aspects of what you are talking about, Oden,
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and my disposition and why I am, you know, in
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itself summons to be your bodyguard or protector or do
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your bidding for you, right? Or do, you know, needless
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to say, right? And so, well, Oden, and this is
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going to be a reoccurring role Throughout this book. Odin
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says well you know. Hey. You'll come to find out.
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That my disposition. Is. Reflective. Now. I'm taking this from
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my point of view. That his disposition is reflective. Of.
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Being brutally. Honest about. Things. And then this is reflecting
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about the bringing reality to the situation of gods and
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what they do and why the traditions of gods are
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more concrete in this book and why it's one of
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those books that are most of the time it's very
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uncomfortable to hear because it's being shockingly honest about the
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aspects of if you were to put gods into human form,
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This sounds like an oxymoron here, but the structural chaos
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some of them can bring to society. And Odin goes
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back to that, right? So Shadow says, well, you know,
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they are in the diner again and they are eating,
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which is, you draw the conclusion that it's supposed to
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be a Christmas Eve dinner or Christmas dinner for them, right?
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And Ogun in himself, he spots a young woman. And
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she's working at the diner. And Cheryl says, well, hey,
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you know, you should have respect. You know, and you
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don't know if she's legal. Like, you know, you don't
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know all these things. He's going again, reminding him about the...
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Morality of the situation. Reigning in man. He said well
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I never. I guess you can say. Pride myself with.
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Being worried about those sort of things. So this in itself.
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Goes back to the aspects of gods. And. What they do.
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Particularly when you think about. The most. Well. Well. recycled,
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told story in most things that, you know, with Greek
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gods and goddesses, it seems like all it ever is
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that centers around their stories of it is chaos. But, hey,
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you know, with just one mere perspective about that, observation
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about that but Zeus in itself you know talks about
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how you know how Zeus is presented especially when he
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is in conquest that is of the opposite sex is
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always presented in a way that is you know just
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not not appeasing it's either sorry about that It could
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be that he's going after someone else's lady or he's
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tricking a woman or, you know, in his incest. All
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these weird, just deplorable things, right? And Oden in himself
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is talking about all these things. And he's saying, well,
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you know, and he's reminding Shadow that this is essentially
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what gods do. You know, he's just being honest about
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the situation, right? He's not saying, you know, he's just
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going in, he's saying, you know, hey, by the time
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he gets found out, you know, I'll already be skipping town. And,
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you know, he says about the aspects of how Barry
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and his uh, deemed wisdom, which is crashed, very crashed
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in itself, says, well, you know, when you think about
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these conquests and the conquests in which I will indulge in,
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you know, this is a part of the tradition of God,
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you know, we, um, we, uh, suit ourselves on, uh, versional,
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you know, um, People are people because that is a
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part of our traditions, right? And it's just being very
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brutally honest about that. And it makes a lot of
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sense why there's a lot of... You have that disposition
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in this book. You either like it or you don't.
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and what Neil Graham started out with this book, because
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he's been brutally honest about this, the aspects of, even
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though these gods and goddesses are seen and revered in culture,
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you know, throughout the world, hey, you know, if they
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were to take on, you know, human form, and we
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are to be very and very matter-of-fact about how they
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would be and their dispositions in America. Hey, look, this
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is the landscape for that in this book, right? And
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it's very interesting because it gets the conversation into why
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in itself were these mythologies and where it be Greeks
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and so forth what were the reasons behind their stories
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and what does that relate to and to which the
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audience would Understand at that time. And all these things.
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And all these interesting conversations. Could be had from that. Right.
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And so. There's that. And then. Odin. And I'll end
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with this. Odin starts in. And discusses with Shadow. About grifts.
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And grifting. And then particularly. He goes in on the
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aspects of the bishop. So that is you know taken
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aback too because it's another thing that relates to the
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season in which they're in and everything with Christmas and
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all of that. Now some people Have the disposition. And.
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Which is unfortunate. And. That's been painted a lot. In
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mainstream culture. And it is really sad. When you see
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that in real time. And it has. The aspects of.
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Not really. You know believing. In your spirituality. And just being.
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you know, pseudo-spiritual, which is really, I don't know, it's just,
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it's kind of like this, not really an adage, but
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an example, right? So it's that you see something that
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you don't normally see in your day-to-day life, right? And
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then when you see something that you don't normally see
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in your day-to-day life, you pay more attention to it
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because it doesn't seep into your routine. And then when
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you find out that the thing that you normally see
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in your routine, that you don't normally see in your routine,
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is reflecting on what you are. find true to your
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foundation that's when you know the crap hits the fan
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and all these things these polarizations and conflicts start to
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happen right and so again you know this is another
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point of reflecting about the aspects of this book right
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we are Getting to the importance of understanding, okay? Whatever
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it is that you find to be something that is
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fundamental to you. Why is it fundamental to you, right?
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And does it actually mean something to you because somebody
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else told you it's supposed to mean something to you?
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Or did you actually seek it out because... it is
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out of your own merit right and for me from
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my point of view that's what i gather from this
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right you know specifically um when you talk about you
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know when he was talking about with this whole grift
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that he did with the aspects opportunity to be a
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bishop but he's just you know a wolf in sheep's
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clothing so to speak right um it's unfortunate that, especially
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with spirituality, people can be taken advantage, a lot of
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people can be taken advantage of when it comes to this, right,
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when you're not, now, it's a lot of things that
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goes with that, but when you're not it could be
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a thing where you're only looking at it from the
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surface level. It's appealing to you because it visually looks
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good and it sounds good. But when you get down
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to the heart of it, how does it actually speak
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to you? How do things actually resonate to you, right?
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And that's when the aspects of manipulation can come. Because
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most of the time when it comes to spirituality, people
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are at their most vulnerable because of something tragic that
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has happened or other means that has happened. That's not
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always the case. And that's how people can get swayed into...
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believing things and doing things that are just not that
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doesn't really go and to the core of what spirituality
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is supposed to be about because for the most part
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this is how what spirituality means to me is it's
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a uh foundation to keep you grounded centered centered and
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to make uh more sense of things in the world
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around you you know and to be more and and
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um present for people to be more understanding in all
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of these things, right? And so, I just think it's
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very cleverly done how Milgram, you know, I don't know,
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that's just what I'm gathering from my point of view,
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you know, how he links all these ideas together in
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this first part of chapter 9. Alright, so this reaches
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the end. If you all want to continue the conversations,
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feel free to reach out to me. Two ways to
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do this. Again, it's through email. You get a media
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response that way. And YouTube comments. And also, I will
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talk about everything and mention y'all on my podcast. Alright,
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so This was just the end of the Hard Brain Light.
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Tune in, turn up, and absolutely, absolutely take care out there.
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Bye-bye for now.
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Hello, this is The Harboring Light. I'm Mary. I give
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a conservative perspective about the world around me. Feedback is
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immensely important. Feel free to reach out to me. Two
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ways to do this is, of course, through email and YouTube.
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And I appreciate all the listeners out there. You know
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someone that is really interested in my content. Tell them
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about it. Give them the information about everything, if you
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choose to, about The Harboring Light. Thank you so much. Alright,
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so on to the topic of choice. Now, I'm focusing
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in on chapter 8. No, excuse me. Let me say
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that again. Chapter 9 of American Gods. And so I'm
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going to break this up again. The first part in
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this episode and the second part on Wednesday. Here we go. Alright,
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so in the first part what I found very pivotal
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It starts out with saying Grifty, right? And then it
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starts out with Odin, which is Mr. Wednesday, and his conquest, right? Alright, so...
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Odin is talking to Shadow, and it's still Christmas time,
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and they're in a diner. And he's giving these specifics
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about The atmosphere and everything. And I always appreciate that.
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With books. How. Most of them that are well written.
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That is. When they take the time to. Give the
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disposition of. The. The place in which they're in. And.
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Sometimes that's not the case. But most of the time.
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It helps to emphasize. Um. The subject matter. And. A
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lot of the subject matter. Cleverly. Interwolves into. The idea
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of Christmas. So Christmas is supposed to be. The season
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of giving. Of understanding. And. Being. Joyful. And. All of
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the reasons. which should be presented all year round, right?
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But Christmas is particularly the chosen path because, again, Christmas
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was the decided that is the tradition, American tradition or
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so forth, that's decided time in which the birth With
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the birth of Christ. And him. And. His joy and majesty.
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And the reason. For Christmas season. Now some people say.
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And see this is alluding. To the aspects of. Christmas.
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And how. It's one of. There's others. But Christmas is.
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The big holiday occasion where secular and spiritual comes together, right? So,
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hold on just a second. Alright, so. When you look
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at Christmas from a scholarly and a spiritual point of view,
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you're going to find out things conflict with one another.
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And when you look at the circum, if you look at,
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you know, especially when Jesus was born, his birth and everything,
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it's is in the realm of, maybe that's the spring,
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when he was born was in the spring, not necessarily
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in the winter, right? And, well, a scholarly point of
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view about this is tying into Norse, or mythology, right?
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Which Odin is very prevalent of, right? Mr. Wednesday here.
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And so, Norse mythology is one in which, which is pagan,
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one in which they celebrate winter solstice, right? And giving
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respects to the god for, um, surviving a winter and
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getting through in the darkest times of the winter because
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usually typically especially when you think about in the norwegian
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and all of that and the elements it for the
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most part when it's winter most of the time it's
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dark it's the darkest time of the season And so,
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out of that begs the question, you know, where do,
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how do things evolve and establish itself as tradition, right? Now,
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the big picture with American Gods and Neil Graham, he's
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illustrating with His book. You know. America. Is the example.
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Of how. Traditions. Find a way to merge. And become something. Else.
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And specifically. focusing in on Christmas and then going into Easter.
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These are examples of how and with American traditions, right?
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It becomes established to where the ideas about Christ and
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spirituality well let's say the ideas about spirituality form itself
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in holiday traditions which aesthetically and visually makes sense right
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now what does this all mean what I just said
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alright so the birth of Christ right um And Christmas itself. Now,
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the birth of Christ, like I said, was mentioning, you know,
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that there's always the different, which I really appreciate and love,
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and that's how you, you know, if you are of
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Christian faith or what your spirituality is, you get more
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in tune with it when you learn and discover new
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things about your faith, right? Now, the way it's presented,
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it seems like, is if it's in the the spring
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or almost towards the summer season when Jesus is actually born.
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But aesthetically, you know, having it during a time when
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it's the darkest part of the season, particularly in which
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region you live in, in America, right? And this is
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a worldwide thing, not just pertaining to America. And then, again,
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emphasizing on Odin, these are worldly traditions, right? It makes
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sense to want to have the most... noble benedicted act
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of known to mankind to have his birth story is
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to be in the darkest seasons or season of known
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to our natural world right But when you see this
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and understand this and you start to look at... scholarly
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where things turn, it seems as if maybe that's not
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the case. The reason why it was presented to be
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Christmas to become what it is known today, it was chosen.
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It wasn't necessarily the right season. You know, traditionally, well,
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actually it's not the right season. It's just the right
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season because aesthetically it makes sense, right? And so this
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emphasizes the points of the gods in this book. You know,
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driving home the factor of they make sense as far
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as their place when it aesthetically is appealing. Okay? And
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Odin in itself... Sorry about that. Odin in itself is
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one of the prime examples of that, okay? Now, Odin... He...
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Is the foundation for all the other. Others. As far
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as gods and goddesses that came to America. He is
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a foundation to. Say. This is the disposition that I have.
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In which I thrive. And set myself apart from all
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these other gods. That are here in America. And he.
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In his self. You know, shadow is a voice of
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reason and reflection of that again. And shadow in itself
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is trying to hold on and trying to keep into
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his conscious self to say, well, we need to look
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at the moral aspects of what you are talking about, Oden,
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and my disposition and why I am, you know, in
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itself summons to be your bodyguard or protector or do
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your bidding for you, right? Or do, you know, needless
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to say, right? And so, well, Oden, and this is
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going to be a reoccurring role Throughout this book. Odin
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says well you know. Hey. You'll come to find out.
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That my disposition. Is. Reflective. Now. I'm taking this from
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my point of view. That his disposition is reflective. Of.
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Being brutally. Honest about. Things. And then this is reflecting
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about the bringing reality to the situation of gods and
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what they do and why the traditions of gods are
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more concrete in this book and why it's one of
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those books that are most of the time it's very
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uncomfortable to hear because it's being shockingly honest about the
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aspects of if you were to put gods into human form,
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This sounds like an oxymoron here, but the structural chaos
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some of them can bring to society. And Odin goes
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back to that, right? So Shadow says, well, you know,
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they are in the diner again and they are eating,
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which is, you draw the conclusion that it's supposed to
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be a Christmas Eve dinner or Christmas dinner for them, right?
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And Ogun in himself, he spots a young woman. And
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she's working at the diner. And Cheryl says, well, hey,
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you know, you should have respect. You know, and you
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don't know if she's legal. Like, you know, you don't
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know all these things. He's going again, reminding him about the...
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Morality of the situation. Reigning in man. He said well
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I never. I guess you can say. Pride myself with.
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Being worried about those sort of things. So this in itself.
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Goes back to the aspects of gods. And. What they do.
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Particularly when you think about. The most. Well. Well. recycled,
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told story in most things that, you know, with Greek
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gods and goddesses, it seems like all it ever is
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that centers around their stories of it is chaos. But, hey,
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you know, with just one mere perspective about that, observation
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about that but Zeus in itself you know talks about
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how you know how Zeus is presented especially when he
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is in conquest that is of the opposite sex is
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always presented in a way that is you know just
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not not appeasing it's either sorry about that It could
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be that he's going after someone else's lady or he's
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tricking a woman or, you know, in his incest. All
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these weird, just deplorable things, right? And Oden in himself
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is talking about all these things. And he's saying, well,
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you know, and he's reminding Shadow that this is essentially
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what gods do. You know, he's just being honest about
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the situation, right? He's not saying, you know, he's just
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going in, he's saying, you know, hey, by the time
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he gets found out, you know, I'll already be skipping town. And,
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you know, he says about the aspects of how Barry
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and his uh, deemed wisdom, which is crashed, very crashed
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in itself, says, well, you know, when you think about
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these conquests and the conquests in which I will indulge in,
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you know, this is a part of the tradition of God,
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you know, we, um, we, uh, suit ourselves on, uh, versional,
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you know, um, People are people because that is a
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part of our traditions, right? And it's just being very
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brutally honest about that. And it makes a lot of
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sense why there's a lot of... You have that disposition
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in this book. You either like it or you don't.
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and what Neil Graham started out with this book, because
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he's been brutally honest about this, the aspects of, even
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though these gods and goddesses are seen and revered in culture,
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you know, throughout the world, hey, you know, if they
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were to take on, you know, human form, and we
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are to be very and very matter-of-fact about how they
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would be and their dispositions in America. Hey, look, this
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is the landscape for that in this book, right? And
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it's very interesting because it gets the conversation into why
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in itself were these mythologies and where it be Greeks
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and so forth what were the reasons behind their stories
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and what does that relate to and to which the
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audience would Understand at that time. And all these things.
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And all these interesting conversations. Could be had from that. Right.
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And so. There's that. And then. Odin. And I'll end
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with this. Odin starts in. And discusses with Shadow. About grifts.
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And grifting. And then particularly. He goes in on the
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aspects of the bishop. So that is you know taken
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aback too because it's another thing that relates to the
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season in which they're in and everything with Christmas and
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all of that. Now some people Have the disposition. And.
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Which is unfortunate. And. That's been painted a lot. In
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mainstream culture. And it is really sad. When you see
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that in real time. And it has. The aspects of.
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Not really. You know believing. In your spirituality. And just being.
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you know, pseudo-spiritual, which is really, I don't know, it's just,
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it's kind of like this, not really an adage, but
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an example, right? So it's that you see something that
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you don't normally see in your day-to-day life, right? And
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then when you see something that you don't normally see
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in your day-to-day life, you pay more attention to it
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because it doesn't seep into your routine. And then when
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you find out that the thing that you normally see
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in your routine, that you don't normally see in your routine,
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is reflecting on what you are. find true to your
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foundation that's when you know the crap hits the fan
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and all these things these polarizations and conflicts start to
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happen right and so again you know this is another
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point of reflecting about the aspects of this book right
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we are Getting to the importance of understanding, okay? Whatever
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it is that you find to be something that is
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fundamental to you. Why is it fundamental to you, right?
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And does it actually mean something to you because somebody
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else told you it's supposed to mean something to you?
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Or did you actually seek it out because... it is
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out of your own merit right and for me from
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my point of view that's what i gather from this
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right you know specifically um when you talk about you
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know when he was talking about with this whole grift
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that he did with the aspects opportunity to be a
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bishop but he's just you know a wolf in sheep's
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clothing so to speak right um it's unfortunate that, especially
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with spirituality, people can be taken advantage, a lot of
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people can be taken advantage of when it comes to this, right,
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when you're not, now, it's a lot of things that
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goes with that, but when you're not it could be
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a thing where you're only looking at it from the
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surface level. It's appealing to you because it visually looks
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good and it sounds good. But when you get down
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to the heart of it, how does it actually speak
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to you? How do things actually resonate to you, right?
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And that's when the aspects of manipulation can come. Because
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most of the time when it comes to spirituality, people
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are at their most vulnerable because of something tragic that
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has happened or other means that has happened. That's not
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always the case. And that's how people can get swayed into...
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believing things and doing things that are just not that
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doesn't really go and to the core of what spirituality
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is supposed to be about because for the most part
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this is how what spirituality means to me is it's
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a uh foundation to keep you grounded centered centered and
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to make uh more sense of things in the world
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around you you know and to be more and and
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um present for people to be more understanding in all
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of these things, right? And so, I just think it's
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very cleverly done how Milgram, you know, I don't know,
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that's just what I'm gathering from my point of view,
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you know, how he links all these ideas together in
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this first part of chapter 9. Alright, so this reaches
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the end. If you all want to continue the conversations,
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feel free to reach out to me. Two ways to
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do this. Again, it's through email. You get a media
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response that way. And YouTube comments. And also, I will
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talk about everything and mention y'all on my podcast. Alright,
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so This was just the end of the Hard Brain Light.
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Tune in, turn up, and absolutely, absolutely take care out there.
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Bye-bye for now.
